should be a class action suit

Having a small business who joined the BBB for a year, the BBB rating is based on whether you pay for your membership. For us, we had to pay $600/year for an A rating. As a new business, we wanted to do everything we could to put trust into consumer’s minds to hire us. We have a bonafide interest in attracting new business and taking very good care of our customers. We paid to be an “Accredited Business” which supposedly shows a consumer that we are willing to use BBB to mediate complaints if needed. Last year, we couldn’t afford the fee because of the economy-boom our rating went down to a B! We had no complaints and our business was a year older-the only reason is because we didn’t “pay to play”. I complained and got no where, like an earlier post, the woman said they use an algorithm that cannot be changed. However, if I pay it can certainly go back up to an A.

Does the BBB solicit? Yes. But, I want to point out one detail that was missed in this article. Not all applying businesses are approved. There are two departments involved in the approval of businesses. The department that sells memberships is obviously concerned with getting as many members as possible, but there are standards. You were probably contacted because you had a good complaint record with them.

With that said, there is another department which does more in-depth research by sifting through applications to make sure they definitely meet BBB standards (satisfactory complaint record, time in businesss, licensing, ownership of other businesses, etc.) So contrary to popular belief, just because you get a phone call doesn’t mean you will be approved.

The mediation/arbitration services are actually quite valuable for many business owners. But membership is not for everyone. It helps some industries better than others. Some owners have totally capitalized on membership through marketing efforts and have been extremely successful in growing their businesses. It boils down to what you do with membership.

Oh, and if you cancel or are not approved, no worries. You’ll get the money back. With telemarketing schemes, that usually isn’t the case.

It totally understand how some could be confused by the whole process. I do think improvements could be made in how this is communicated to the public.